New Toy

My old website was disabled, and is now down. Probably for the best since I couldn't really update it anyway (stupid Homestead won't build a platform for Macs...)

Anyway. In the meantime I have a new toy to help with my Christmas Cards this year. More on those later.

UPDATE: Okay, well it's been a long time since i did screen printing and most of it came back to me, albeit not right at the onset. Also, I had apparently forgotten how messy screenprinting is. But it seemed to work fairly well - if not perfect. I think with a little more practice and a less crude positive image (I used cut paper stencils here) the results will be fantastic.

Here are the printed faces of the cards. The cut paper method is quick and dirty. Emphasis on dirty. It's prone to squeegeeing bits of ink out onto the underside of the screen, and to ghosting certain parts of the images. But overall it's a hell of a lot more dramatic than my handwriting, and creates a nice contrast to the deep chocolaty paper.

Drawings of Statues

I went to Italy a year ago and it was amazing! Art everywhere. And lots of statues. Which meant random naked bodies to draw. This first drawing is a statue of Neptune in the Palazzo Bargello, the oldest Palazzo in Florence. The museum was sort of a side trip for me, but it yielded a huge collection of Donatello. In the lobby was this massive sculpture of Neptune, and sketching it allowed me to rest my feet for a few minutes. The pencil line didnt show up great in the scan so I've tweaked the color balance on this significantly.

The second drawing is a statue by Bandinelli that stands opposite Michelangelo's David on the steps of the Palazzo Vecch

io in the main piazza of Florence. The statue depicts Hercules defeating Cacus. It's kind of a funny statue in that Cacus seems more upset that Hercules has his junk right in his face rather that being clubbed.

In my day words didn't matter...we had FACES!!!!!

One of the best lines from Sunset Boulevard.  And I figured that if I lead in with a joke it will make the fact that I draw people when they aren't looking at me a little less creepy.  Yes, I'm the weird artist who sits in the corner and doesn't talk to anyone, but will turn crimson and look away when you make eye contact.   Sorry, just the way it is.  The rounded edges of the drawings are from my PM (pretentious Moleskine) 

This was a flight attendant when I went to Italy.  He was much bitchier than I drew him.

These two were cafe boys.  It's tricky to get proportioning/expression correct when you can't actually just stare at someone...and when they won't hold still.  So the boy above suffers from a small head (and weirdly elvish ears) and below needs his eyes to be spread a few centimeters wider.   

From Photos

Luckily the internet has lots of photos to reference if you don't happen to have a model handy.  These are a few drawings I've done from photos.   The benefit is that the photos don't move, and so you can draw them as long as you'd like.  The drawback is that you're essentially copying one image into another image, and so lose a lot of the life that a live model can convey.

old stuff

Okay, so about two years ago I moved from a place with a decent work/storage space to an apartment with almost none.  I stopped focusing so much on sculpture and moved to classical figure drawing, something that has always interested me, but that I had pursued only on the sidelines.  A friend generously loaned me his studio space and I hired models.  This is from the very first drawing session.  The model was 2 hours late, and not exactly 'as described'.  Anyway, here's the drawing.  

Technical Issues

So I just got a new computer.  Yay me.  But all of my imaging software - photoshop, etc. is on the old computer.  And we're having a few technical issues bringing them across.  So...in the meantime I have a few random images that will be uploaded, but they won't be anything spectacular.

Patrick Torso

Another one of my early drawing sessions (I think my first actually). You can see me shying away from completing the whole figure in the profile view. I've been challenging myself more - when the body is completely elongated in a standing or laying pose - to complete the entire figure.

I think one of my stronger areas is foreshortening. The muscle mass on the torso provides a lot of visual clues and a lot of overlapping markers that I find much easier to draw then stretched out figures.

Kieth's foot and butt

Most of these drawings are from a weekly drawing group I attend. This was one of my first times going, and I was focused a lot on keeping the lines fine and delicate. The result was a good back shot of Kieth. I also got frustrated with one drawing and so I focused on Kieth's foot. I think both worked out well.

Mike In Black and Red

Mike was a good model, with a really good physique. I was switching between red chalk and black chalk. The black was a little tougher and more aggressive and I got frustrated and started smudging it. Which I think is cheating a little bit, because it introduces a whole bunch of new values that are much much more difficult to achieve with just the chalk alone.

Two More of Edward

Two more of Edward. I tend to have trouble with elongated poses: where the model is standing or laying flat out. I'm much better at compact and complicated poses...it's easier to hide mistakes...

I rather like the back picture of here. It's very loose and fluid, and although I didn't get the whole body on the paper the gesture and thrust of the body carries through.

Two of Don

Here are two drawings I did of Don last fall. I'm not sure that I love either one. I think the lighter is a little too loose, and in the second I got lost in the shading and didnt pay attention to his anatomy. Oh well...live and learn.

Best so far

I think this is my favorite drawing so far. Edward had a great body, and was able to strike a beautiful classical pose (and hold it!) Very reminiscent of the sculpture "The Barberini Faun".

I'm still working on tweaking the color balance when I scan/photograph these in. The grey band along the bottom of the image is from Tim's scanner, which is smaller than my drawing pad.

Up Up And Away

Since Homestead just cannot be bothered to make their software Mac compatible I've decided to look elsewhere to upload/store/share my figure drawing works. This is it. Woo.